Patient Testimonials

"I am a family care nurse at Swedish Medical Center. Recently, I got to experience the other end of this nurse/ patient relationship. Nine months ago, I gave birth to my first child at Swedish Medical Center. "

June Cvelbar longed to pull up the bed covers and go back to sleep. It was fewer than 24 hours since her doctor had tied the last stitch after replacing her knee, and nurses were ushering her out of bed, chattering something about "boot camp."

Sharon Baltzell will tell you that she's alive today for two reasons: 1) She quit smoking 10 years ago, and 2) She heeded a public-service announcement from HealthONE's Swedish Medical Center to have a low-cost lung scan. The Nebraska resident even dragged her husband along because of a short history of cigar smoking.

When she was twenty-five years old, Littleton Colorado's Stephanie Madsen thought she had her entire future planned out. Newly married, she wanted to move to a new city, buy a new house and start a family with her husband Matt. Life seemed to be perfect for Stephanie until one day her list of dreams quickly turned into a battle plan to fight cancer. "It was so tough, I felt like we had lost our freedom to plan our lives," says Stephanie.

Douglas Foe’s deadly pancreatic cancer – that he’d managed to survive for more than six years – returned for a second time recently, spreading to his adrenal gland. But the positive Foe – whom his wife calls "highly abnormal" – thanks his upbeat attitude for licking cancer again. Well, that, and progressing technology.

Marc was starting to experience severe ankle arthritis, a condition seen with age or prior trauma such as an ankle fracture or sprain. His arthritis was so severe, there was hardly any cartilage left in his ankle. "I was in extreme pain and my entire quality of life went down," he explains.

In August 2012, Martin was on his way home from work in Colorado Springs. This was a commute he often traveled on his motorcycle. "There was a lot of construction that day," said Martin. "I wasn’t aware that the road was down to one lane and as I braked, I slid downhill, swerved and hit the car in front of me." Martin severely broke his left leg in multiple places.

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Doctors at Swedish Medical Center are continuing their work to reconstruct a man’s face after it was torn off by a grizzly bear. In November, FOX31 KDVR.com profiled Lee Brooke -- a hunter from Pennsylvania...